Sam Inglis wrote:I don't default to using reverb as "glue" but sometimes things recorded in a dry studio environment just benefit from a bit of life and sparkle, and if you use a really short ambience patch, or even just switch on the early reflections and disable the rest of the reverb, you can add quite a lot of this without it sounding "wet" as such.

In fact, if you take this to extremes, a reverb of almost zero duration is in effect an EQ, which is why you can use an impulse response plug-in to do EQ or reverb.

Aha - so your glue tends to be early reflections or even a comb response at extremes. This makes a lot more sense than a 'reverb tail' - you're effectively putting up a few virtual walls nearby your performers, to place them within a space, albeit a fragmentary one.

Martin Walker wrote:if you use a really short ambience patch, or even just switch on the early reflections and disable the rest of the reverb, you can add quite a lot of this without it sounding "wet" as such.

Thanks for this suggestion Sam, I've got something in progress at the moment that might well benefit from a splash of this at one point. :)

I like to look for incidental and unique sounds from instruments, like the tap of a pickup on the guitar, or perhaps an unintentional vocal sound or grunt, or something quiet in the background that can be isolated and brought up - unique sounds from the session. Then, create a new 'instrument' , like a hand clap, or shaker from these sounds and 'play it' on top of a part in a musical way so it becomes part of the song. It helps give the song a unique sonic character that later on makes you immediately associate that sound with the song. It makes the song sound totally unique but in a subtle but lasting way.

Bob Bickerton wrote:Another thought...... AKG C411 stick on mic...... you can stick it on just about anything. Bob

A long time ago I heard a broadcast where the British jazz drummer Tony Oxley had contact microphones all over his drum kit, on the cymbals, stands everywhere. It was exceptional electronic music - and played live.

Using multiple reverbs and delays is an actual requirement for me. I work in a hybrid environment where all of the input and most of the mixdown is actually performed in the analog domain....so I have a limited supply of effect processors, and in general don't like the "pushed up against the front wall" sound that I seem to be unable to avoid when I'm using the included effects in my DAW, which is now Reason10 (I'm a masochist I guess!)

So, since I'm in a phase of making 80's inspired tracks with some modern elements, I'm using a lot of my Lexicon 480L and PCM 70. A sleeper for stuff like wood rooms, etc the Sony HR MP5, an old TC 2290 (that is going to need some TLC pretty soon) and an Eventide H3000....add to that my pedals: 2 Eventide H9s, a Strymon ElCapistan, a Strymon Deco, a Strymon Timeline and an Ibanez SC10 Chorus from the late 80s....last but not at all least, I have the Waveboy "Audio In" disk for my old EPS 16+ sampler, which allows a mono in/stereo out effect, basically giving me one last rack effect.

My compressor section is even more limited, a pair of Warm Audio WA2As, a Warm Audio WA76, an Amek "channel in a box", along with a very early production model Neve Portico 5012 that I love to run mixes through as well as use to drive the Neve output transformers into non-linearity and the WA2A's tubes into saturation.

I have a cassette deck in my rack as well, an old Tascam 3-head unit, and I like to take the output of (specifically) reverb units and push them through tape, where you can play with record levels, bias, NR (on for record/off for playback, vice versa, etc).

The short story here is that I have a limited amount of effects and colors to create my mixes, and I will often combine them, usually in parallel, but sometimes with a bit (20% or so) of series send in the mix. Using these limited effects and colors creates a cohesive whole that really works for the style of work I've been into for the past 18 months or so.